I am pretty sure this will be our last blog post for 2014. The blog has been running since summer 2009 and in 2014 we have break the record of the largest amount of readers during a week. This was mainly due to the last article I wrote about the ERP vs PLM “no debate needed“. I was recently discussing again with an association I’m in, the PLMLab and we were again brainstorming on how to make sure we keep the focus on very solid concepts when talking about PLM. For those of you, who already went to PLM conferences, this is the biggest challenge, making sure you leave the conference with some new knowledge. So we covered again the main topics we see in PLM and the ones that are still very challenging in the industry today. And without much doubt, I would say that the main topic is Configuration Management.

Configuration Management can be discussed from Requirement Management to Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul processes. This is a source of a large amount of data, mainly in terms of relationships between objects. And these relationships hold a lot of information, like effectivity for example. And they also have to be very contextual, as contextual data becomes more and more important. I found a good read for (at least after a few pages, it looks like a good book). I just started and already, I sense that it will provide me with some real knowledge. The book is called Configuration Management Metrics written by Frank B. Watts

It starts by enunciating the main principles of configuration management and the main items of configuration management. I particularly the explanation on why Engineering changes need to be executed fast.

“if a change is required to meet specification, should we ship more products without that change? If a change will accomplish a real cost reduction should we build more produucts at a higher cost? If a change can logically be processed slowly, it probably shouldn’t be done at all.”

And also for the humor, the mention of what he published in the Technology Review about the risk of thinking that just computer themselves will fix the complexity problem:

” A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history… with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila”

And that reminds me the latest few companies I went to. I’m often asked: “what happens if we realize we have made a mistake in our ECN?”. And I always say that the process is structured with review steps in order to make sure that everything is correct, just like when you ship your product. But I can tell that no ones want to hear this answer!

So I hope I’ll be back with some interesting knowledge about Configuration Management Metrics in 2015 and will do my best to share my thoughts.

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I’ll leave you with our video about change management applied to the Electronic Industry. I hope you have a Marry Christmas and a Happy New Year !!!